EVENT | LANDFALL | KITHIKA | KEELIAI

[cherrywood]

Characters: ALL!
Date: February 12th - 28th
Location: Keeliai
Situation: The discovery of an artifact from the first war against Malicant reveals the land of Kithika within a dimension of the Death Plane... and just happens to be contained inside a bottle.
Warnings/Rating: Please indicate content warnings in subject headers as applicable.

OOC INFORMATION ♦ CITY OF KEELIAI ♦ INSIDE THE BOTTLE ♦ THE WORLD EATER
Commencing the morning of the tenth, a mysterious thick, black fog covers all of Keeliai with no discernible cause, making it difficult to see. Although it doesn't seem to enter houses or suites, it's literally everywhere else and can't be swept or cleared away by superpowers. Attempts to scan it with technology lead to unexpected and inconsistent results, with the findings varying from speculation that it is smoke from a coal fire to the occasional reading stating that it is black cotton candy floating in the air.

Following the official announcement explaining origins of the mysterious black fog inundating Keeliai, the call is put out for the Foreigners to attend the Palace and prepare to be transported to Kithika. Once inside, it is explained, they will be responsible for finding the source of the corruption and expunging it. Once they have entered the bottle it will be impossible for them to leave until their task is completed, making this an all or nothing undertaking. This is upon direct imperative of the Alderwood Emperor and he expects any and all combat-capable Foreigners to heed his order, and they are to report to the Palace of the Landed Sky without delay.

---

OOC INFORMATION
Landfall Questions | Approved Item Requests | Player Plot - Kryptonian Rampage OOC

CITY OF KEELIAI
Emperor's Orders: Miasma Explained | Marshaling the Forces | A City Under Siege | Halting the Scourge

INSIDE THE BOTTLE
Crossing the Swamp | Decayed Grounds | The Sullied Temple | Stone Idols | Item Discovery

THE WORLD EATER
Battling the Dragon | Soul's Poison | Kryptonian Rampage | The Guarded Pool | Weighing the Options | Aftermath

Comments

[problematical]

The knowledge about the purified water has been spreading and River has followed some of the petitioners who came to Evandau and was granted access to draw from the pool. She's sitting on the edge, a silver urn in one hand as though ready to draw the water into it, but seems transfixed by the liquid. There's nothing happening in it of course, not like for those who ask to see their futures, but River's own mind supplies just as many visions as the Palace magics.

She's been sitting largely unmoving for several minutes now, enough to begin garnering interest. A kind fellow Foreigner might want to gently prompt her before the guards start getting wary.

[imaginate]

'What's the holdup!' he yells, from behind the queue, and decides what the heck. They're in an emergency situation and he'd prefer to forego common courtesies like waiting in line or waiting for someone else to take their turn. Damn civilians.

He pushes his way to the front with his own container, and finds everyone staring at River. She has a container, but he nearly mistakes her for a statue given how still she is. He mentally equates that with terror, having seen one too many petrified with it over his life.

'Hey,' he hisses, with urgency. 'Dip it in the water, huh?'

[problematical]

The yell doesn't startle her but the much closer undertone causes her to tense up, fingers pressing so tightly onto the silver urn that if it had been a softer metal, she probably would be leaving indents. The stares of the others in the room burn into the back of her neck.

"Peel it back like the skin of a fruit, cut it into pieces, serve it hungry..."

[imaginate]

He tilts his head. What? She wasn't making any sense but he was sure she'd heard him, it was impossible not to at this range.

He glances at the others in the queue, and sighs. 'Hey,' he repeats, more evenly. 'Dip it in the water. We've kind of got to get it to people ASAP.'

[problematical]

River's shoulder's hunch slightly, finally dragging her gaze away from the pool to look up at Kyle; her eyes are wide and afraid, pupils dilated and dark.

"There's something in there," she says, clutching the silver jug to her chest. "So loud. If I break the surface it'll get out."

[imaginate]

His expression softens, and he puts down his own container, sits as close as she'll allow. Of every reaction he inspired or witnessed, he hated the fear most. It clogged everything, muddied the heart, drove people to do horrible things.

'What's in there, sweetheart?' he asks, softly. 'What's it saying?'

[problematical]

"Keeps changing," she says as the people behind them seem to reach the consensus that this isn't something it'll be wise to wait for, streaming towards the other side of the pool to resume their removal of the pool water. Each time they do, River flinches like a blow being laid across her narrow shoulders.

[imaginate]

Kyle waves them off to encourage them to stay away from this particular spot at the moment, it's clear River's problems are more than just an unwillingness or inability to get a jar of water. The uniform helps, he supposes, or people just don't care enough to fight with him over it.

'Changing from what?'

[problematical]

"So many mirrors..." Her lower lip trembled but without the stares of the others on he (or at least, fewer of them being cast in her direction) she was calming slightly. Her hand reached out to hover just above the surface of the water, like she intended to skim her fingers across the surface but then pulled both hands back to her lap.

"They're all broken, they can't show the whole picture. It's just little pieces and when you try to pick them up, they can cut you and you'll bleed."

[imaginate]

He raises an eyebrow, and very slowly, reaches out his own hand to skim the surface of water, intending to see what she'll do if he tries. Kyle's never been one for metaphors, he prefers hands-on, and that's how he wants to understand what she's trying to say. It feels important.

[problematical]

Her shoulders draw into a tight line as his fingers break the surface and yet... nothing happens, other than the ripples spread across the water. River looks in equal measures baffled, then irritated, then affronted at the lack of reaction from whatever it was she'd sensed.

"Liar," she snaps at the pool, petulant before pushing the silver urn under the water and drawing it up full. She gets to her feet in a smooth, graceful rise and clutches the urn to her chest, turning for the door.

"Liars and thieves," she mumbles over and over, looking quite upset about it.

[imaginate]

Kyle watches each as it flicks across her face, part of him wondering which looks more natural on her face (the answer is none). Huh.

He lets his fingers skim the water again, this time hovering above the ripples cause by her urn. Had it simply not happened or not hurt?

'Wait up!' he calls, as she walks off in such a huff - no, walks isn't it. She moves in a way that makes him think of Anne, like they've both been at the sea. Damnit he couldn't think about painting at a time like this. Grabbing his urn, he fills it and follows her. 'It didn't break? Isn't that a good thing?'

[problematical]

"But it was already broken," River replies, neither increasing her pace as he followed nor slowing it to be polite. Even with her insistence that the water hadn't hurt, whether physically or in another way, she steadfastly doesn't look down in the urn held securely to her body. "Over and over and they're always gluing the pieces back but the reflection is never right. Can't paint the last detail, can't put the speck in her eye or it'll become real."

If anything, she seems especially frustrated at not being able to explain. "I want Simon," she mutters. Her brother would help her find ways to express what she was trying to say even if he himself didn't understand at first.